


Liar Liar

by isxbella



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Gen, can be read as doctor/jack if you squint, kinda angsty, tentoo/rose is implied but could be platonic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-02
Updated: 2020-08-02
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:21:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25670506
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/isxbella/pseuds/isxbella
Summary: The lies the Doctor tells Rose about what happened to Jack, and how she eventually uncovers the truth.
Relationships: Jack Harkness & Rose Tyler
Comments: 5
Kudos: 13





	Liar Liar

**Author's Note:**

> Title inspired by the Jim Carrey film, but this work contains no references to that! 
> 
> I’ve thought long and hard about what the Doctor told Rose so that she was okay with Jack’s sudden departure and yet not surprised when he showed up in Journey’s End. This is by no means a canon-compliant version of how I think it went, it’s just a version of how it might’ve.

Rose’s breath is catching in her throat, and when the realisation hits her she lets out a half-shriek, causing the Doctor to turn in worry.

She’s still huddled in a ball against the TARDIS doors, and he’s still at the console talking a million miles an hour- each empty reassurance remaining unheard by Rose. 

But Jack’s nowhere. Jack, the ex-conman who had charmed his way into her heart and quickly became her second best friend, a human who would cuddle with her as they watched horror movies that the Doctor- her first best friend- found dull. Jack who had been braver than them both and ran into certain death with a smirk at his lips. 

“Where’s Jack?” she hisses, meeting the eyes of the stranger in the Doctor’s leather jacket. Her small voice interrupts his babbling about her and the TARDIS and why her memories of the last few hours are fuzzy. 

He stalls, his eyes pained. “Jack died, Rose.”

The words give life to the grief inside of her and she begins to sob like a child, faced with the realisation that she has neither of her best friends anymore. 

She’s talking without really meaning to, her words hard to comprehend and muffled by her tears. “He was… my best friend! He was so full of life, he kissed me and now… now he’s dead. Died for me.”

The Doctor tries to put a hand on her arm to comfort her, but she shrivels from her- her glare accusing. “He loved you and you let him die.”

“Rose,” he whispers, staring helplessly at her, “you need to stay calm. This is going to be difficult enough…”

She all but spits at him. “I want to go back for his body. He must have family somewhere… sometime.”

She hears the noise of the TARDIS landing and before she can deliver her departing line, the Doctor has thrown the doors open- leaving a faint orange glow in his wake. 

—

Her breath curls in front of her as she stares at him. The Doctor’s eyes betray no emotion, cold brown orbs watching her. 

“If we don’t die, you leave us- is that it?” she says, tone venomous. “And don’t tell me that I’m special, not when you didn’t let me go back for Jack’s body.”

The Doctor reacts physically at his name this time. There are a million things he could say to console her, but it’s the truth that he chooses. “Jack isn’t dead, Rose. There would’ve been no body to find.”

The reality dawns on her face. “You left him. You regenerated and flew off with me, leaving him there… but you have a time machine! Let’s go back and fix it.”

“I can’t,” the Doctor replies. His tone sounds sincere, but he can see that Rose doesn’t believe him. 

“Can’t or won’t?” she spits. He doesn’t reply, but when tears begin running down his face, part of Rose forgives him and doesn’t bring it up again for a while. 

—

The Doctor, Rose knows, is a terrible drunk. When she sees him with a bottle of liquor, she is reminded of many nights at alien bars she wishes to forget. 

She tries to sternly make him lie down and have a nap, thanking the TARDIS when she zaps him for trying to pilot her, but he doesn’t stop talking. 

It all sounds personal, like he’s thinking aloud, so Rose tries not to listen as she puts blankets over him until she hears a familiar name. 

His eyes are glazed, he’s mostly burnt-out yet his words are perfectly coherent. “Jack, give it some rest. Rose says I need to sleep but it’s really hard with all of this dying and burning bright at the centre of the universe you’re doing.”

“I thought he wasn’t dead, Doctor?” she asks without thinking.

He grins at her. “That’s the thing, Rose Tyler. Lovely name- did I ever tell you that? Anyway, when Jack dies it doesn’t stick! He just sort of… wakes back up again.”

Rose blinks. “He’s immortal?”

The Doctor nods, eyes closing and yawning widely. “Yeah, all thanks to you.”

—

It takes Rose a few minutes to realise that she’s spent all day uncovering facts about the man whose name Jack stoke rather than her Jack Harkness. And seeing that she’s stuck in a parallel world, she doubts it’s accurate anyway. But even as she yawns with frustration, she won’t give up. Jack- other than the Doctor- is the one person she never got to say goodbye to properly.

  
  


—

It’s the metacrisis Doctor that eventually tells her everything. Her time with Jack had been brief with saving the world and all, so she had never been unable to uncover the specifics. 

She cries when she hears his story. She always knew she would, but as someone who was both separated from the Doctor and loved him she understands the take on another level. 

She hits the Doctor- her human Doctor- in the shoulder and makes him promise that if this universe has a Jack Harkness, they’ll track him down and make up for the hundred years he spent alone. 


End file.
